Washington, Nov. 17, (dpa/GNA) – The administration of US President Donald Trump is rushing to sell rights to companies to drill for oil and gas in Alaska’s nature reserve before he leaves office.
The Interior Department on Monday posted a “call for nominations,” to be published on Tuesday, allowing oil and gas firms to specify within 30 days which tracts of land in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge they want to potentially drill.
The move clears the path for a potential lease sale before President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January. Biden opposes drilling in the reserve.
The coastal plain is thought to overlie vast oil reserves, and industry groups and environmentalists have been fighting for decades over whether to unlock the wilderness’ energy potential.
The Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress in 2017 reversed decades of protections by authorizing potential oil and gas development in 8 per cent of the Arctic refuge.
The nature reserve comprises around 80,000 square kilometres and serves as a habitat to polar bears and other wildlife.
GNA